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Never mind though, look on the bright side, at least we are mathematically safe in Division Two and will be playing host to Grimsby, Sheffield Wednesday, Hartlepool and Rushden next season – that’s of course assuming we don’t drop out of the league completely between now and then. And how could we forget our neighbours Mansfield Town, for whom nothing less than two wins out
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I keep telling myself that the season is now near its end and I only have to survive 180 more minutes and it will be all over for another 3 months. I say it in that way because, for me, the last 2 games have been nothing but utter boredom… and today’s made it 3.
Richard Liburd and Tony Hackworth were dropped to the bench for this afternoon’s game at Loftus Road and replaced by Darren Caskey and Ian Richardson. Paul Heffernan returned from Ireland to take his place on the substitute's bench.
It became clear early on that somehow this wasn’t going to be Notts’ day with QPR causing the Magpies, playing in yellow shirts and black shorts, all sorts of problems from corners and free kicks close to the box.
All game Notts only had 4 shots – well you have to call them shots but not one that I remember ever looked like going past Chris Day in the R’s goal. QPR, on the other hand, had 13.
Gino Padula and Richard Langley both had early free kicks that missed the goal.
The first of Notts’ 4 efforts came from Darren Caskey whose unconvincing shot was easy to stop for Chris Day.
Rangers were in front after just 15 minutes. Kevin McLeod crossed
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Paul Furlong could have grabbed a second minutes after his first but this time his header went wide of the post.
Danny Allsopp had a volley, which soared over the crossbar and soon after Fenton headed the ball back across the goal but no one was there to put it in the goal.
HALF TIME: 1-0
The Halftime interval was possibly the most entertaining part of the day, apart from the 20 minutes when Mansfield were behind at Blackpool of course!
QPR had set up this competition whereby fans had to run around a cone 10 times with their forehead touching the top of a pole. Then, having completed the 10 rings around the cone, had to run up to the penalty spot and (obviously being extremely dizzy at this point!) kick the ball past the Rangers mascot. Those poor supporters must have had more shots on target than Notts managed all game – and they weren’t even a little dizzy.
Both Notts and QPR were just about as bad as each other in the second half. The Magpies were always getting caught in possession or simply just turned into a group of oncoming Rangers players. The visitors were losing the ball at every opportunity, which included hitting it out of play from their own free kicks.
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Danny Allsopp and Mark Stallard both could have scored for the Magpies but were denied by the London side.
Possibly Notts best chance came when Allsopp was through on goal but Danny Shittu (who just simply has the best surname in the game!) dispossessed the Aussie striker when Allsopp really could and should have done a lot better.
The best was saved until last however when Richard Langley made up for his earlier misses from free kicks by blasting a curler from 20 yards past the Notts keeper, you couldn’t do a lot except applaud that.
FULL TIME: 2-0